He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not
by animeisrunningmylife
Summary: Jean and Marco grew up as neighbors and best friends. But when Marco moved away at age eleven, Jean thought he would never seen him again…until his first day at Titan University. Modern AU, College Au, slow build, friends to lovers. JeanMarco, fluff, eventual smut.
1. Chapter 1

_Chapter One_

**A/N**

**This first chapter is just background. But necessary for the story.**

Jean had known Marco since birth. They grew up on the same street, went to the same school and did everything together.

Marco was one year older then Jean, but it never bothered them. They were best friends; one year didn't matter to them.

Growing up, the school year was full of meeting in-between classes, during lunch and recess. And the summer was full of water balloon fights, sleepovers and blanket forts.

Marco was always there. He was Jean's first real friend, first everything. Every new thing that Jean experienced, Marco was at his side.

Jean and Marco had their first sleepover when they were four. They went to Disneyland together for the first time when they were six. They got into their first fist fight when they was seven, and their first fist fight with other people when they were nine. And at ten, Jean kissed Marco for the first time.

Jean remembered everything leading up to that kiss. He and Marco had met up after school as usual and decided to play in Marco's tree house. They got snacks and games and were ready for the usual weekend sleepover, but Jean had no way of knowing it would be their last.

Jean and Marco were in the middle of a game of Scrabble when they heard a wail from inside the house. They both got up and ran inside, they found Marco's mom sobbing over the phone. They later discovered that Marco's grandfather had died. Jean was send home as the Bott's discussed 'some serious family things.'

The next morning, at the crack of dawn Jean heard a light tapping at his window. He got up and saw a red faced Marco standing outside, Jean let him in and the moment Marco was threw the window he trapped Jean in a hug and wouldn't let go.

Marco was crying on Jean's shoulder and saying what happened between sobs. His family was moving to Colorado to take care of his grandma, they were driving up this morning to see her and he didn't know if he would ever come back.

Jean didn't know what to say, he pulled back from the hug and placed his hands on Marco's cheeks. He used his thumbs to whip away his tears as he promised him. Jean promised that Marco would always be his best friend.

Marco stopped crying, but Jean didn't move his hands. They stared at each other a moment, before Marco leaned in and kissed Jean's cheek.

Jean went red and shot back. "Wh-what was that for?" He exclaimed. He wasn't grossed out or anything it was just…shocking.

Marco smiled and began to cry again. Jean rushed forward and resumed his previous place. "Please Marco" He begged. "Don't cry, I didn't mean to push you away." He pulled him in closer. "Please."

Without another thought, Jean leaned down and kissed Marco, right on the mouth. It was his first kiss, and he knew it was Marco's as well.

When Jean pulled away, Marco was blushing a deep shade of red. He pulled Jean into another tight hug. "I have to go."

"I don't want you to."

"I'll see you again. We're best fiends forever, remember?"

Jean smiled and nodded. "Forever."

Marco never came back. Not once. His dad did, about a week after they had left, he came with a moving truck and packed up the entire house. He shook Jean's hand and said sorry, that Marco said hi. Jean told that he said hi back and gave Mr. Bott a friendship bracelet to give Marco, but that was it.

Jean's last interaction with anyone from the Bott family.

Jean was only ten. He should have been able to move on, but he didn't. There was no one else like Marco. Until Jr. High Jean didn't even make an attempt to make friends. But when he joined the Jr. High baseball team he made a few, a tall guy named Reiner and a bossy girl whose parents threatened to sue if they didn't let her on the team, her name was Annie.

But that was it, going into high school Reiner and Annie were his only friends. It didn't help that there was a rumor that he was gay spread around the school.

It was true. But Jean didn't want people to know that. So he kept a low profile, he hit on some girls in hopes that the rumor would die, but it didn't work.

By his sophomore year he was the guy you came to, if you thought you were gay. If you wanted to experiment. Jean would fuck just about anybody who wanted to give it a try.

He graduated at the top of his class but he wasn't awarded or anything, he had too many detentions for that, but he was smart enough to be noticed by Titan University. A small college is California. Reiner got a baseball scholarship to the same school and Annie decided to tag along for the adventure.

Jean was excited to start college, to get away from all the mistakes he had made, the people he fucked, his horrible parents and the town he hated. He was ready for a second chance, for a new chapter in his life. For the opportunity to start over.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Jean, Reiner and Annie were exhausted when they finally made it to Reiner and Annie's apartment. Reiner had decided to live off campus so he could help Annie with the rent, they also had another roommate they hadn't met yet.

Jean wouldn't be able to move into the dorms for another three days, so it was decided that he would crash at the new apartment that Reiner had named, 'party town.'

They all gathered up their things and headed up the elevator to the forth floor, they already had a key but knocked anyway, to give the other roommate some notice.

A tall brunette answered the door with a timid. "Hello?"

Reiner grinned and stuck out his hand, the brunette reached his hand through the door and shook it. "You must be Bertoldt!" Reiner beamed. "I'm Reiner, this is Annie and Jean."

"I was told that only two of you would be moving in…and that you were coming tomorrow."

"There was a change of plans so we left early, but don't worry about Jean, he's only here til he moves into his dorm."

"Okay?"

"Great. Now can we get in, we've been driving all day."

Reiner all but shoved his way into the spacious room, it was already furnished with tidy matching couches and tables.

"Which way to my room?" Reiner asked.

Bertoldt pointed down the hallway and Reiner took off with a brief "thanks"

Annie picked up her things from the floor and followed. They had barely been in the apartment a minute and bertoldt already looked stressed, he was sweating through his shirt.

"Are you okay?" Jean asked.

"I'll be fine…I just need to get used to being around so many people."

"You're starting at Titan too, though…right?"

"Yes and no. I'm a second year. But I'm an art student, so I don't have to interact with others much."

"That'll change; Reiner was a party animal in high school. I think it will only increase now that alcohol will be more readily available."

"Oh…okay. So you went to high school with him and the girl?"

"Yup."

"And you guys are from..?"

"Oregon." Jean stated. "Did you guys even talk before you decided they would live here, you don't seem to know anything about each other?"

"I just needed roommates, it didn't ask questions."

Jean nodded. This entire conversation was making him uncomfortable, but he didn't want to just leave Bertoldt alone to drown in his own sweat. His friends were being jerks, sure they were all tired but they could at least sit down and try to have a conversation with this guy. Why was it left to Jean to make the small talk? He wasn't even living here.

"If you guys are hungry I can make something." Bertoldt offered. "While you get settled."

"That would be awesome." Jean said, he could already feel his stomach growl at the idea of food. "Do you need help or can I?"

"Help your friends move in. really, I don't mind. I'm used to cooking alone."

Jean frowned at the thought. He looked around the room again, the coffee rings on the table, the dust gathered on DVD's by the TV. Bertoldt had been here a long time, hadn't he.

"Bertoldt?" Jean asked.

"You can call me Bertl, its shorter." He smiled.

"Okay. I was just wondering if I could ask you something."

He nodded.

"How long have you lived here?"

"I moved in my first semester."

"Alone?" Jean questioned. "You didn't have any friends you could live with, or you don't now?"

Bertoldt looked uncomfortable. "I've never really had friends; I keep to myself in public settings. Even just a group of two or three people is intimidating to me. I can talk just fine on my own but no one ever approaches the awkward sweaty guy."

So he was aware of how much he sweats.

"But why such a big place? If you knew you would live alone?"

"My parents are wealthy and didn't like any of the downtown apartments and the only one they liked that was close to the school was this one. A three bedroom two bath, with a balcony and a view of the city." Bertl sighed. "But they are paying for the apartment and for school so I didn't argue."

"Yeah" Jean sighed. "I know what that's like."

"Your family rich too?" He asked awkwardly.

Jean nodded. "They were big on spoiling me. Took me to Disneyworld when I was twelve."

"That's nice. My parents had hardly any time for me."

"Ah but the Disney was only to cushion the news of the divorce."

"Oh. That's no good."

"Yeah, the car they bought me when they got remarried was nice though. Even if I was only fourteen." Jean scoffed.

"My parents have been back and forth for years."

"Yeah mine too. Yours in business or policies?"

"Both." Bertl sighed. "Dad in politics, of course. Can't have a women representing the Hoover family." Bertl mocked.

Jean laughed, his parents were the same way. "You're funny." Jean smiled. "And not nearly as shy as you look."

"Well you're not as much of an ass you look."

"Ass?" Jean questioned. He had been called that and many other things, but Bertoldt seemed so nice. And Jean was actually making an effort to be nice, which was rare for him. Most people made him want to commit homicide within a few minutes.

"You came here driving a Porsche, you're wearing cologne and even your luggage is designer."

"Well you'd have to know designer to see designer." Jean smirked

"You make a good point." Bertl smiled. "Do you prefer Alfraido or Mariana for your spaghetti." He said, holding up too bottles of sauce.

"Alfraido all the way." Jean said. "Dude, your making us spaghetti? I thought you would just like, heat up some got Hot Pockets or something."

Bertl laughed. "Hot Pockets? You're kidding me, those are so gross. "

"That's a horrible thing to say. They are amazing." Jean laughed

"I only know one other person who even likes crap like that and Marco only eats it when his boyfriend isn't around."

Jean's heart nearly stopped just at the mention of the name. Marco. He had only ever met one person with that name; he hadn't seen or heard from him in eight years.

He hadn't thought of him in months. More like weeks. Okay, who was Jean kidding he still thought about Marco everyday.

But hearing the name made him ache for his old friend.

"It's almost ready." Bertl said, interrupting Jean's thoughts. "You want to get your friends?"

"Yeah I will." Jean turned to the hallway but looked back for a moment. "Bertl?"

"Hm?"

"Reiner and Annie are really cool…You'll be friends with them in no time."

By the time Jean's stay at 'Party Town' was over he considered Bertoldt a friend. Which was a rare thing, but Bertl was cool. He liked a lot of the same movies as Jean, he was an amazing cook and an avid bored game player.

Jean didn't even know how many games of Scene It, Harry Potter he had lost in the three days he spent there.

But he was excited to move into his dorms and meet his roommate. Even if part of him wished he could just live at 'Party Town' with the rest of his friends.

Jean had already unpacked his clothes, made his bed and set up his things in the bathroom when his roommate arrived.

Jean was in the middle of sorting the things on his desk when he heard the doorknob and then someone greeting him.

"Hello, you must be Jean?" A small blonde asked. Jean would have shook his hand, if they weren't full of books.

"And you're Arman? Armeemen?" Jean questioned.

"Armin."

"Right, from the e-mail I couldn't really tell how you pronounced it."

"That's fine, my high school teachers all had the same issue. No one gets it the first try." Armin smiled. "I see you're all moved in?"

"Yeah, I hope that's okay?"

"Of course. I wanted the left side anyway."

"Sweet."

Both sides of the room had a bed, a desk and a dresser. In the center of the two beds was a mounted bookshelf, half of which already contained Jean's movies, video games and CD's.

"So you're from Oregon right?" Armin asked.

"Yeah. And you're a native Californian? Second year, right?"

"Indeed. I'm double majoring in law and business…With a minor in art."

"Impressive. I'm undecided." Jean said. "Do you know a Bertoldt Hoover, he's an art major."

"I know of him, I was in a class with him last year. Tall guy, kind of nervous looking?"

"That's him." Jean said. "If you get another class with him you should sit together, he's cool."

"Sure thing." Armin nodded as he began stacking his books.

Jean smiled inwardly. Maybe if Armin approached Bertl it would give him some confidence.

Jean never would have done something like that in high school, he never cared about anyone but himself. But he was going to make sure that college was different. That he would be different.

_Schedule_

**World History. M W **

11.00-1.15

**Philosophy T THR **

2.00-4.00

**Englis **

101 1.30-3.30

**Science T THR F**

11.00-12.45

**Drama M W F**

4.00-5.30

Jean was less then thrilled about his classes for the semester. Since he was undecided, he was just taking basic classes.

He was excited for World History, since that was his best subject in high school. He fine with English and science, philosophy wasn't even that big of a bother.

But drama? It was either drama or art, and since Jean didn't have a creative bone in his body, he had no choice but to do drama.

He would be surrounded by theater freaks, musical lovers and eccentric gays for at least six hours a week. Yay.

Jean's first class wasn't until eleven and Jean had every intention to sleep in until at least ten. But no. He was woken up by Armin's horrible alarm at six.

Armin got up and showered, Jean lay awake in bed and contemplated if there was any reason to get up rather then sleep. He knew he should shower, and shave. But that was it.

Unfortunately Jean couldn't fall back asleep, not matter how hard he tried. He finally rolled out of bed at seven and started his day.

He showered, shaved and dressed in casual clothes. Jean's, a t-shirt and a plaid in case it was cold inside one of his classrooms.

He packed up all his supplies and headed down to the campus coffee shop. He ordered a large latté and a muffin.

Unfortunately the muffin had raisins. Jean hated raisins. But rather then get up and exchange the muffin for a different flavor jean lazily picked out each and every raisin before finally eating the destroyed muffin.

Jean looked down at the table and saw the pile of raisins on his napkin. Raisin's always reminded him of Marco.

Marco hated grapes with passion but loved raisins to an extreme. Jean was the exact opposite. Marco's mom always tried to slip them into food when Jean was over, but he would always notice and pick them out, sliding them under the table into Marco's hand.

Jean smiled at the memory.

"Hey." He heard a monotone voice. He looked up and saw annie standing in front of him.

"What are you doing here, you don't go to school?" Jean asked.

Annie held up a filled out job application for the coffee shop, Jean nodded as he read it.

"Getting a job here?"

"Trying to." She shrugged. "It will be easy this way, Reiner and me could just carpool."

"You bought that truck he was looking at?"

She nodded. "Well my interview starts at eleven so I should go.-"

"It's already eleven?" Jean jumped from his seat and took out his phone. "Fuck. I'm late. Take care of my trash will ya?" He said before running out the door.

Jean's World History teacher didn't even notice he was late. Jean wished he could have been a little later, or not shown up at all. Class was utterly boring, they gave you a syllabus before hand for a reason. Why didn't they have to go over it again in class? College sucked.

Jean realized college sucked even more when he didn't even have time for lunch between History and English.

He wished he had thought ahead, he noticed a brunette girl that was also in his History class. She had a sandwich with chips hidden in her purse; she took them out hallways through class and ate until the end of it.

With only a half an hour until drama Jean rushed to the cafeteria and bought the first thing he could get his hands on, he scarffed it down before using the bathroom and rushing off to this finale class for the day.

Drama was held inside the theater. Shocker there. Everyone seemed to be early; the students were all chit chatting among themselves, the teacher wasn't in sight. Jean took a seat in the very back and read through the class syllabus until class began.

The teacher stood on the stage and yelled for everyone to be quiet. Jean would have thought the man to be a student if it wasn't for the bags under his eyes.

"Good evening." He greeted in a monotone voice. "This is intro to drama for first and second year students, can I ask for everyone to move to the first five rows."

Jean sighed and dragged his stuff to the edge of the forth row. A few other students got settled before the man spoke again.

"I'm Levi, I'll be your professor for this class. I don't tolerate talking, jokes, interrupting or tardiness. Now I don't really give a shit about your names so im skipping roll call."

A small blonde girl in the front row shot up her hand, Levi rolled his eyes and pointed for her.

"Mr. Levi, the roll call is mandatory for the first two weeks of clas-"

"Then I'll do it tomorrow."

"We don't have class tomorr-"

"No more questions." Levi said bluntly. "I'll pass around the roll call and you check your name if you're here."

Levi motioned the blonde girl to come forward before dropping the roll sheet in her hand.

"Now, in this class we will be reading, analyzing and acting out plays. Each person will be assigned a perminate partner and from each pair you will be assigned into groups of four. In this class you will analyze six plays of my choosing and act three partner scenes and three group scenes. Are we clear on that?"

Jean was handed the roll sheet, he didn't even bother to look at the first page, he was always on the second. He checked off his name and handed it to the girl next to him.

By the time the roll was finished, Levi had gone through his abridged version of the syllabus.

"Now there are thirty two of you in this room, I will pass around this bowl; inside the bowl are slips of paper. On each paper there is a number. You take a number; you keep the number, if you draw a one then find the other person with a one. You are partners. As far as groups go, ones with be paired with twos, threes will be paired with fours and so on."

Levi passed the bowl down to the blonde girl. She took a paper and passed it to her right.

"Now once you find your partner and your group, exchange numbers and emails and the lot. Make a plan to meet each other, lunch or coffee. You don't have to be friends but you need to respect and rely on each other, if you fail this class so does your partner. You can leave as soon as you've got our partner."

Jean waited until the bowl was passed to him, all the slips were nearly gone. He grabbed the first one he saw and opened it to see that he got an eight.

He looked up and saw that several people had already paired up, in groups and pairs. But their were still a few people looking around. Jean was just about to join them when he heard someone call, "Eight? I'm looking for eight?"

He turned around and looked through the crowd. He saw the person yelling for number eight.

Jean couldn't believe it. There was no way…it couldn't be Marco.

Jean swallowed hard and picked up his bag. He took heavy steps down the stairs, trying to think of what to say.

It was Marco, he was here. After eight years Jean was seeing him again. He had the same dorky hair cut, his fringed hair parted down the middle. He wore the same goofy smile, but most recognizable were the freckles that were sprinkled over his cheeks and his nose.

That was Marco, alright. The Marco he used to play Pokemon with, the Marco who helped him with his homework, the Marco that had sworn be Jean's best friend forever. The Marco that kissed Jean, before walking out of his life for eight years.

Jean had thought about seeing him, wondered what would happen. If Marco would even remember him or jump into his arms and say how much he missed Jean. Or act all cool like they hadn't even been that close.

Now he would know. How he would finally get to talk to him again.

Marco was talking to some girl, his back faced Jean as Jean just stood there. Staring. He was finally caught by the girl.

"Marco." She began. "I think someone wants to talk to you." She looked back at Jean. And Marco turned to face him.

Jean could almost hear his heart stop.


End file.
